OpenEuphoria

1. win32lib product goals

• Posted by Derek Parnell <ddparnell at bigpond.com> Jul 03, 2001
• 335 views

"euman" wrote:
 ========================
My way isnt the Win32lib way.
I like the library and feel as you do that its a big part of
Euphoria. I just dont understand all 30000 or so lines
*yet*. Earlier version of the library could have benefit
from my code but now, its out of my reach.
I remember DC recently saying he didnt understand
why some of the changes were made.
I dont think the big picture has been presented to let
everyone know whats next.
I know that some of the code from my little project will
spark some interest but how to submit these to Derek in
Win32lib useing his Mem Handling and tweaks Im not sure.
Euman
euman at bellsouth.net
 ========================

David Cuny (and Dave, speak up here if I'm getting this wrong), wanted to
have an easy-to-use library that was platform independent. He did not want
Win32Lib.ew to have every bell and whistle that is available via the Windows
API and SDK. He did want to enable people who needed those extras to gain
access to them though.

David's key ideals are 
    * Simple to Use
    * Use on any Euphoria platform
    * Extendable

In my opinion, he achieved the usage idea, but at the cost of some internal
complexity and reduced functionality. The platform idea was not achieved. I
believe it was because to do so reduces the functionality even more so
(lowest common denominator problem), and some early design decisions made it
difficult to generalize some aspects. Matt Lewis and others have shown that
the library is extensible to a point, but only if you modify portions of the
internals.

The next version is moving more along David's original plans, but there will
be a few iterations until we get it right.

The simplicity ideal is paramount. I am trying to reduce the learning curve
for its usage and the amount of coding required to get it working well.
Again, this will cost in terms of internal complexity (namespaces and
forward referencing would GREATLY help here), and reduced built-in
MS-WINDOWS functionality.

By further simplifying the Win32Lib API into generic GUI functions, it ought
to be easier to port the library to other platforms. However, I won't be
doing the porting - I'll leave that as an exercise for others.

The next version will assume that extensibility is normal. It makes adding
new functionality simpler by defining a protocol to be used between the
Win32Lib core and plug-in extensions. For example, all the "control" types
currently supported will all be implemented as plug-ins to the library. You
can include or exclude them in any manner you choose, providing it still
makes sense to the underlying GUI platform. This will also enable the size
of win32lib apps to be reduced by only including the controls that you
actually need.

Euman, one way to "submit these to Derek" is to submit them to Derek. I can
then work out how to fit them in and if need be, I can discuss things with
you. 

I am very happy to include everybody's improvements into the library, and I
have done this many times before. I trust that I can do it without
compromising David Cuny's original hopes for it.

Maintaining Win32Lib is a hobby occupation for me. Thus is does not dominate
my life nor pay the bills. I truly love doing it and believe that I'm
helping people. If not, I'll just keep it as in-house project for personal
use. The changes that are going into it now are mainly internal and do not
effect functionality. This is being done to make maintaining it easier in
the future.

-----------
cheers,
Derek Parnell
Senior Design Engineer
Global Technology Australasia Ltd
dparnell at glotec.com.au



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